development program of teams having youth academy’s where their whole lives are dedicated to development in that particular sport from a young age with a clear path for getting to the next level and playing with older more skilled players as their development demands not just their age. Breaking that progression up between school and club and then college is much less efficient. US soccer teams didn’t start consistently producing talent until they moved to this model and stopped relying on college/club teams for development.
With how much Silver adores soccer’s structure I’m shocked he hasn’t tried to adopt this strategy more.